Hey! I'm Flavio il Meeple con la Camicia!
and welcome to this new episode
where I'm going to show you another preview of a game
that is going soon on Kickstarter, September 1st 2017
and I'm talking about CASTLES & DRAGONS
is a game much more "american"
and as you already know, you can't see much of them on my channel
it's set in a fantasy world
there is area control, resource management, a good economic aspect, battles
but before going through, I'll show you how it works
how a the game plays and then we come back and I will tell you what I think
and remember that you can travel through my videos
with the links you can find in the description
Before we start I've to tell you that,
even if doesn't seems,
everything you see here is a prototype
so bear in mind
that in the final version something could be different
if the KS campaign is started you can find the link in the
little "I" up here
and you can see for yourself the final product
CASTLES & DRAGONS is set in the fantasy world of Morton
the introduction in the rulebok helps you making an idea
at the beginning of the game players draw randomly
a character sheet, that is different for eavryone
and with a different ability for each player
then they get the resources
wood, stone and rye
and the coins
taxes on level 0 and happiness on level 30
and here in the center the cubes in the choosen color and the Dice with 12 faces
then take a land sheet and preferably in this conformation
where there are mountains, plains and forests
for an easier game
then place on it two villages, where you wish,
and one of this factories on a zone you choose
because this will help produce resources
then take an army sheet with it's relative token
and place it on your land sheet with 2 units of infantry
and a bowman
this basically represent what there is in your land
now we have to select or choose randomly which is this land on the map
there are two ways: one with a die roll, so totally random
or following the rulebook for an equal distribution
that is what you see here now
once the land is decided, take the corresponding token
and place it on the land sheet
while on the land itself place one of your cubes and
this token here, with the number of your army
finally draw a spy card
and 3 missions
of which you can discard 2 and draw back another 2
that then you must take
these represent opportunities to make victory points
and the spy cards are action cards you can use during the game
the game is divided in rounds, usually 10
unless a player creates a country first
pushing his happiness level to 90 (or more)
or if a player eliminates all the others
Every round is made of 8 phases, summed up on this sheet
and in the first round, there's the law "Si vis pacem para bellum" that prohibits all the battles
sending spies and makeing raids
the firts phase is the tax and resources
in which you can change the value of the taxes you request to your villages
moving below 0 means requesting less taxes to the villages
but there's the possibility to raise the happiness,
that is the objective you're pursuing to form a country
if you raise the taxes you may obtain more coins,
but it is also true that the villages can end in riot
and you wouldn't get anything
In this phase you could also recruit a dragon
Yes! You got it right!
If you own a city, a castle and the wizard tower
and rolling a 12 with the die
you can add +1 to the roll for every mountain you have in your land sheets
Then you get resources with the factories you own
For each factory you roll the die and check on this chart
how many resources you obtain
next phase is the upkeep in which you have to supply your armies
with coins and resources
The third phase is the alliances, but playable only with 3 or more players
players can talk privately and make pacts
writing them on paper
these pacts are in force until they are broken
or until payers decide to unanimously broke them,
showing them to the other players and explaining why
There are some examples in the rulebook, but the
players can create their own
The fourth phase is the trade
in wich, in player order, players can buy and sell resources
including the armies
at the cost indicated on this chart
then, at the end of the phase the market is modified
based on the difference between the things bought and sold
if for exelple the players have bought 5 infantry units
and 2 where sold
the difference is 3 and checking on this chart
based on the number of players, in this case the price
is raised by 1
The next phase is the one in which you can build structures
each one has a cost, a value in victory points and an associated ability
that can let you obtain coins or modifiers on the die rolls during battles
The factories only help you to produce resources
The structure can be villages, cities
deriving from the villages
the castle, the wizard tower and the factories
The next phase is the expeditions
you can move your armies between your lands
and between your structures in the same land
you could also send a cart in the enemy lands to obtain coins
but you have to roll the die and check the result on this chart
to see if you succeeded
The seventh phase is battles
skipped in the first round
however is divided in 3 sub-phases
1 planning 2 movement 3 resolution
this is a phase with various shades
but briefly, first you write in secret on a paper where you
want to send your armies
then everybody reveals at the same time
in this case battles for the land control occurs
If a land doesn't have enemy's armies
you have to determine how many orcs there are with a die roll
and face them; otherwise the battles are between players
When 2 armies battle, the sheets are faced one towards the other
and for each unit the players roll the die
and add the modifiers given from their position and ability
Same way during a siege in a land with a castle
There's even the opportunity to battle with 3 armies or 4 armies
and in that case you can use this ones
that helps define how the units battle together
there can be even raids and you can claim the lands
Raids allow you to attack villages to obtain coins
while to claim a land you've to defeat all the units defending the structures
so, also the ones on the land sheet
The last phase is the Happiness, in which you've to
check this space on your player sheet
if there are spy cards and unhappy tokens
then check the charts here and modify the value consequently
If your happiness drops to 0 you lose automatically
while if it reaches 90 or more, you've managed to create a country
ending the game even if there will be another round
if the 90 or more happiness points are obtained in this phase, the game ends immediately
Once the game ends
after the 10th turn or if a player reached 90 happiness points
or if there is only one payer left
Victory points are calculated based on the structures in the player's lands
the dragon, the coins and the happiness level
and the completed missions
the player with the most victory points is the winner of
CASTLES & DRAGONS
Here we are! Now I'll talk about C&D following
my chart of things in my opinion a game should have
starting from the good components
Now, the good components in this game, has you could see
are already here! Even if this is a prototype
so in the final version will only be better
the miniatures detail is really, really excellent already
these for example are 3d printed
they should be in resin
in the final product
and this is a really, really good production
this is an experiment in plastic
Something I really appreciated are these
the coins and the resources made in this way
never seen something like that! They are in wood and marked with fire
they are really awesome!
I really hope they will be like that in the final product
maybe as a stretch goal or an add-on
Something I feel I must say is that the players sheet
and these here, the land sheets
are basically paper
yes, they are hardened but really light
as these, the tiles for the battles
but seeing the incredible amount of stuff in this box
it seems right to me
the box should be gigantic to hold all this stuff so
I think they will be like that in the end
but if the KS campaign is already active you can check for yourself
or you'll see when it will start
the cards are excellent
really, really good production and quality
Something I really appreciated is the first player marker
that basically is a brooch
so you can pin it every time you're first player
Now, the theme tied to the mechanics
In this game there's a theme, you can feel it: the battles the conquer
there should be a fantasy atmosphere
that is not too much perceived
yes, the dragon and the player's sheets
and the introduction in the rulebook
helps a little but during the game you can't feel too much fantasy
but the mechanics are tied to the theme for sure
or I should say the theme is tied to the mechanics
in all of its phases
the tax management, the happiness management
the management of the market
I mean when you buy (or sell)
all this economic mechanism
is really realistic
almost a simulation
so, makes me feel inside this situation
negotiating, buying, trading, enlisting
more soldiers
so, really a good point!
This game is too much sandbox? Not really...
there are 8 phases to follow
they lead you very well inside the game
there they are, represented here in this reference sheet
getting lost in this game, absolutely not
there is a lot to think about for sure, a lot to program
that can slow down a bit the game
loosing some time
but those are the phases, they are really clear and followed very easily
Is this game suitable for all kinds of experiences?
no, I would say not
this is a game that favors the player that knows the game really well
an inexperienced player will be disadvantaged in front of an experienced player
because he knows what to do, when to do it
in the various phases, how to do it,
which are the best moves
the difference is felt enough
Comprehensible rulebook, reference sheets and clear symbols
starting from the symbols that... there are not so much
those present works fine
about the reference sheets a big applause
because, starting from this, the one that sums all the phases
fundamental! Almost you don't have to go check back the rulebook
there's also this that sums all the charts in the rulebook for the rolls
so, when you have to collect resources, attack virgin lands
or maybe how the happiness or unhappiness changes
or how maintaining our troops costs
this is really fundamental and it's really good
absolutely excellent
The rulebook is still a prototype
so it need some fixing
it is clear enough, there are some omissions obviously
and I told the authors the ones I've noticed
and they're working on it and I guess in the final product
it will be done really better
but it is not bad already
Now, randomness balanced to determinism
This game is really random
there are a lot of dice rolls
the mission cards are drawn randomly at the beginning of the game
also the spy cards are drawn randomly
If you want you can take the land sheets randomly at the beginning of the game
also here, on the board, you can see a preparation
where there are predetermined positions for the players
otherwise it is decided randomly with a die roll
and almost in each phase you roll dice
to see the outcome of the battles, the taxes, the production
so there's a lot of randomness
But you can mitigate it in some ways
the wizard tower allows you to re-roll
or there are ways to increase the range of success
but this game is definitely much more random than deterministic
I'm a bit sorry for this, because I love when the things are well balanced
But there's someone out there that would like the fact that
you've always to reinvent yourself, and find something always new
for the bad luck
well... bad luck...
in the end, you produce a little less?
You loose some units during the battles?
Nothing really heart breaking and destructive!
The learning curve
This game isn't hard to learn
It's fairly linear and the phases are easy to follow
There are really lots of things to control
lots of moving parts and things changing during the game
but it's not too complex
getting in contact with this game
more complex will be becoming experts for sure
Interaction. Now, the interaction in this game
changes based on the number of players indeed
It is direct interaction
because we fight here on the board
but, for example, in a two players game, unless you decide to fight right away
and by the way, crossing the sea, that is also dangerous
in a situation like this, most likely you will prefer to expand first
and then cracking each others towards the end
when, with more players
with only one land between each other
sooner or later you'll get to beat each other more frequently
There's interaction with the use of spy cards
these can be really infamous
cards really annoying
some can even help ourselves
and the game encourages you to utilize them
There's s little bit of interaction, but very, very indirect
in the trade phase
where you buy and sell resources
Now, If I know that a player, next turn
is really desperate for military units
I'll try to rise the price
even if it can then turn back on me
This by the way is an interaction that pops out when you're much more expert
Variable setup
There's not so much variability in the setup
The map is always the same
Yes, there are the land sheets that... wait, let's see if I can reach for them...
there are the land sheets, that you can choose from several at the beginning
Even if it is suggested to chose the one with
mountains, plains and forests
for an easier game
but when you'll be expert you can choose different
a big difference is made up by the missions for sure
the ones drawn at the beginning
they give you a direction and change the game setup
as the spy cards
but then there's not a real, big difference between a play-through and another
because what you will do is expand, build
conquer, beat the others
and try to win
In the end what I think of this game
I must tell you the truth
Knowing it was an "american" game, I turn up my nose
but playing it, a bit I was hit by the gorgeous components
but I was really blasted from the economic part in this game
it is really awesome
the tax management, the happiness management during all the round
what you do reflects on your population
If you make others players conquer you, the population is sad
you lose points, you could go in revolt
or if you tax them too much
meanwhile if you conquer other lands, if you manage to take to your side a dragon
They are happy, pleased, they see you powerful
and the happiness rises
The market, I really loved the market!
how it is managed
the resource management, the production
the fact that I've to expand to get more lands to produce more
the building of the structures
The economic part is what I absolutely loved the most for sure
The battles...
being direct interaction, I loved them a little less
and at the beginning I found them a little hard to manage
but then, really, as told me by the authors,
they became more accessible to manage
It's like the first time you look at the Matrix code
and you can't understand a thing
but then you begin to see the woman with the red dress
So, it's absolutely a game to try
for the american games lovers there's plenty to enjoy
the components are awesome and really good
and they will be better for sure
What else... take a look to the KS page
if it's already active
or wait September the 1st (2017) when it will start
and judge for yourself
And that's all! Thank you for joining me in this episode
but if you have any questions or comments
put them in the comments and I'll answer as soon as I can
I'm Flavio, Il Meeple con la Camicia and see you next time!
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